FAVORITE BOOKS OF WELL KNOWN PEOPLE 
WHEN THEY WERE BOYS AND GIRLS 


SECOND EDITION 


CARNEGIE LIBRARY OF PITTSBURGH 


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Published in the Monthly Bulletin, April 1915 
Reprinted, April 1915 and September 1918 
Second edition, May 1922 


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Favorite 


Books of Well Known People When 
They Were Boys and Girls 


A Book 

“He ate and drank the precious words, 
His spirit grew robust; 

He knew no more that he was poor, 
Nor that his frame was dust. 

He danced along the dingy days, 

And this bequest of wings 
Was but a book. What liberty 
A loosened spirit brings!” 

Emily Dickinson. 


Louisa M. Alcott 

Author of “Little women” 

Kenilworth, by Sir Walter Scott. j S431k 

A tale of the days of good Queen Bess. It tells of “my lord of Lei¬ 
cester’s” secret marriage and of the sad fate of the unfortunate Amy Robsart. 
Miss Alcott pronounced this “splendid.” Other favorites were “Pilgrim’s 
progress” and the stories of Miss Edgeworth. 


Thomas Bailey Aldrich 

“The Bad Boy ” 

Arabian nights. j 398 A65aw 

In “The story of a bad boy” Mr. Aldrich tells about the books he found 
in his little hall room in the Nutter house. Among theirq was a fine English 
edition of the “Arabian nights” with 600 woodcuts by Harvey. “Robinson 
Crusoe” and “Don Quixote” he found in the attic. “Shall I ever forget,” 
he says, “the hour when I first overhauled these books? I do not allude 
especially to Baxter’s Saints’ Rest...but to the Arabian Nights, and par¬ 
ticularly Robinson Crusoe. The thrill that ran into my fingers’ ends then 
has not run out yet. Many a time did I steal up to this nest of a room, 
and, taking the dog’s eared volume from its shelf, glide off into an enchanted 
realm.” 

The “Arabian nights” was also a favorite with Miss Hewins, who says, 
“Sindbad the Sailor, the Flying Horse, Bedreddin Hassan, one-eyed calen¬ 
ders, dervishes, afrites, genii, gazelles and ghouls were as well known to me 
as the Mother Goose people.” Lecture on “A child and her books.” 


3 


Mrs. Juliana Horatia Ewing 

Author of “Jackanapes,” “Six to sixteen,” and 
other books for boys and girls 

Children of the New forest, by Frederick Marryat. j M412c 

Story of the English civil war. 

“It is needless to say that as we were brought up on Marryat’s Children 
of the New Forest...our sympathies were entirely devoted to the Stuarts’ 
cause.’’ Gatty’s “Juliana Horatia Ewing and her books.’’ 

Household stories, by the Grimm brothers. j 398 G91h 

Mrs. Ewing when a girl was the nursery story teller and was given the 
nickname of Aunt Judy by the other children of the family. “These early 
stories were influenced to some extent by the books that she then liked best 
to read—Grimm, Andersen, and Bechstein’s fairy tales.” Gatty’s “Juliana 
Horatia Ewing and her books.’’ 


Jeannette L. Gilder 

Author and journalist 

Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. j 92 F879a2 

“Never was the ‘Arabian Nights’ read with greater zest than I read 
this book, and when I had finished it I began and read it all over again. 
After a second reading I was more determined than ever to become a printer 
...Every step in Franklin’s career interested me, and...I did not scorn to 
imitate him as closely as circumstances would permit.” “Forum,” 1887. 

Views afoot, by Bayard Taylor. 914 T25 

“This interesting volume so worked upon me that I took my two little 
sisters one day and ran away from home. I wanted to see the world, and I 
didn’t want to see it alone.” “Forum,” 1887. 

The Library has many good books of travel. Ask for one about the 
country in which you are most interested. 


Edward Everett Hale 

Author of “The man without a country” 

Poetical works of Sir Walter Scott. j 821 S43 

“[Scott] has been, is, and ever will be Poet of Boys... Of course we 
knew half ‘Marmion’ by heart, and a quarter of ‘The Lady of the Lake’.” 
“New England boyhood.” 

Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe. j D378L 

“That Central Book in Modern Literature, the book which explains all 
other books to those who cannot understand them without; the book which 
should have for itself a separate table, shelf, or case.” “New England boy¬ 
hood.” 

This was also a favorite book of Robert Chambers, who said, “How 
youth passed long ago, when there was no Crusoe to waft it away in fancy 
to the Pacific and fix it upon the lonely doings of the shipwrecked mariner, 
is inconceivable.” Quoted in Baldwin’s “Book-lover.” 


4 


Caroline M. Hewins 

Librarian, Hartford Public Library 

Alhambra, by Washington Irving. j 914.6 128 

“One day there was a thunder shower, and...I was beguiled into for¬ 
getfulness of heat and lack of oxygen by the offer of Irving from the 
grown-up book-case,—the double-columned volume that opened the Alhambra, 
the gate with the hand holding the key, the magic tower, the mimic battle, 
the Arabian astrologer and the Christian maiden down, down, down in the 
caverns. It opened, too, the touching, tender story of ‘The Rose of the 
Alhambra,’ and ‘The Lady of the Fountain’ and the journey of the Rose to 
the same cavern, and the tale of ‘The Three Princesses.’ I never stopped to 
ask if the words were long or the style was prolix, but read, read, read, till 
the sky was clear and the sun shone. I had found a treasure, and went on 
to Bracebridge Hall, the old Christmas chapters in ‘The Sketch Book,’ and 
‘The Tales of a Traveller’.” Lecture on “A child and her books.” 

Crofton boys, by Harriet Martineau. j M431c 

“It was from knowing ‘The Crofton Boys’ that on my first day in 
London I counted it an especial privilege to be able to look out of the upper 
windows of a hotel just off Fleet Street and see the steamers going by on 
the Thames just as little Hugh Proctor and his sisters used to watch them.” 
Lecture on ‘‘A child and her books.” 

Fairy tales, by Hans Christian Andersen. j A544fy 

“It was in a Christmas gift-book. . .that I first read ‘Ole Luckoie’ and 
‘Little Ida’s Flowers’ and ‘The Nightingale.’ ‘Ole Luckoie,’ with its wonder¬ 
ful journeys under the umbrella of the Danish ‘Sandman,’ was the favorite, 
and there is no other translation of one of the couplets which the lead-pencil 
made for the doll’s wedding as good as the one in this book: 

‘Her skin it is made of a white kid glove, 

And on her he looks with an eye of love.’ 

It must have been two or three years after this [that I read] a fat, green- 
covered Andersen with the creepy ‘Travelling Companion,’ ‘The Red Shoes,’ 
‘The Little Mermaid’ and all the other stories.” Lecture on “A child and 
her books.” 

Merrie England, by Grace Greenwood. j 914.2 G85 

Contains short stories which were first published in a monthly paper, 
“The little pilgrim.” This “came to me through the mail, and I had the 
pleasure of going to the post-office to get it and of reading her stories of 
history and travel, which made Shakespeare, Guy of Warwick [and other 
historic characters] real living persons, whose homes I looked forward to 
seeing some day.” Lecture on “A child and her books.” 

Swiss family Robinson, by J. D. Wyss. j W998s 

“I had read...a little old ‘Robinson Crusoe’ in the house, with yellow 
paper and small type, but I never really loved him as I loved...the ‘Swiss 
Family Robinson’ with all their suggestive makeshifts and picnicky ways of 
living in tent, tree and cavern, their pet monkey and all the fauna and flora 
of the remarkable island which combined the vegetation of the tropical and 
temperate zones, and where everybody could do and find the right thing in 
an emergency.” Lecture on ‘‘A child and her books.” 


5 


Uncle Tom’s cabin, by Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe. S892u 

“Not long ago when I heard Mrs. Stowe’s son tell ‘How Uncle Tom’s 
Cabin was built,’ repeating some of the scenes almost literally, I found so 
many of the phrases familiar and like household words, that I could have 
helped him if his memory had failed, and told many things that he omitted— 
described the cake that Aunt Chloe invited George to share, the difficulties 
thrown in the way of Haley starting in pursuit of Eliza, the scenes at the 
senator’s and in the Quaker family, and just how Cassy and Emmeline’s 
hiding-place in Legree’s garret was made and furnished.” Lecture on “A 
child and her books.” 

Waverley, by Sir Walter Scott. j S431w3 

“At first...the long, uneventful opening of ‘Waverley’ did not look 
attractive, but an extract from the end, the execution of Fergus Maclvor... 
led me to read the whole, and I was drawn to ‘Ivanhoe’ by a picture in one 
of the old annuals and a dimly remembered story in another wherein 
Rowena’s sea-green kirtle and Rebecca’s ‘simarre’ appeared at a fancy ball. 
After the spell was once upon me, I read every one of the novels, some of 
them many times over before I was fifteen.” Lecture on “A child and her 
books.” 

Wonder-book, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. j 292 H36wo 

“The ‘Wonder-book’ was on my pillow when I opened my eyes on the 
morning of my seventh birthday. . .the dear green ‘Wonder-book’ with the 
Hammatt Billings pictures of the group of children on Tanglewood Porch, 
Perseus holding up the Gorgon’s head, King Midas, Pandora, the three golden 
apples, Baucis and Philemon and the Chimaera.” Lecture on ‘‘A child and 
her books.” 


Thomas Wentworth Higginson 

American author 

Pickwick papers, by Charles Dickens. j D551p 

Higginson kept a record of the books he read as a boy. “The most im¬ 
portant... was the entry under February 27, 1835, of the first volume of the 
‘Pickwick papers’.” “Outlook,” 1904. 

Andrew Lang says, “I read ‘Pickwick’ in convulsions of mirth.” 

The Library has a beautiful edition illustrated by Frank Reynolds 
(qj D551P2). There are twenty-four color plates of Mr. Tupman, Mr. 
Snodgrass, Mr. Winkle, and their illustrious leader, the old lady and the 
fat boy, Sam Weller, Miss Arabella Allen, Mr. Serjeant Buzfuz, and other 
characters of the “Pickwick papers.” 


Laurence Hutton 

Author and journalist 

David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens. j D551dl 

Speaking of himself as “The Boy,” Mr. Hutton says, “It was the first 
book The Boy ever read, and he thought then, and sometimes he thinks now, 
that it was the greatest book ever written... [Other books] never usurped, 
in his affections, the place of the true account of David Copperfield.” “A 
boy I knew.” 

While “David Copperfield” was first favorite, “Robinson Crusoe,” “Swiss 
family Robinson,” the “Leatherstocking tales” and “Rob Roy” were “well 
thumbed and well liked.” . 


6 


Helen Keller 

A girl, blind, deaf and dumb, who has become a writer 

Little Lord Fauntleroy, by Frances Hodgson Burnett, j B934L 

“The first book of any consequence I read understanding^. . . I read it 
again and again, until I almost knew it by heart; and all through my child¬ 
hood ‘Little Lord Fauntleroy’ was my sweet and gentle companion.” “Story 
of my life.” 

Jungle book, by Rudyard Kipling. j K278j 

j S495w 

Wild animals I have known, by Ernest Thompson Seton. 

“I feel a genuine interest in the animals themselves, because they are 
real animals and not caricatures of men. One sympathizes with their loves 
and hatreds, laughs over their comedies, and weeps over their tragedies.” 
“Story of my life.” 

Macbeth, by Shakespeare. j 822.33 T51 

“I do not remember a time since I have been capable of loving books 
that I have not loved Shakespeare. I cannot tell exactly when I began 
Lamb’s ‘Tales from Shakespeare’; but I know that I read them at first with 
a child’s understanding and a child’s wonder. ‘Macbeth’ seems to have im¬ 
pressed me most. One reading was sufficient to stamp every detail of the 
story upon my memory forever. For a long time the ghosts and witches 
pursued me even into Dreamland. I could see, absolutely see, the dagger 
and Lady Macbeth’s little white hand—the dreadful stain was as real to me 
as to the grief-stricken queen.” “Story of my life.” 

Other books liked by Helen Keller were “Greek heroes,” “Hawthorne’s 
“Wonder-book,” “A child's history of England” by Dickens, “The Arabian 
nights,” “The Swiss family Robinson,” “Pilgrim’s progress,” “Robinson 
Crusoe,” “Little women,” and “Heidi.” 


Andrew Lang 

Editor of the “colored” fairy books 

Midsummer night’s dream, by Shakespeare. j 822.33 P72 

“Almost my earliest recollection of books is the memory of a child 
reading the ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ by the firelight.” “Forum,” 1887. 

Lady of the lake, by Sir Walter Scott. j 821 S43L3 

“It was in a summer sunset, beside a window looking out on Ettrick and 
the hill of the Three Brethren’s Cairn, that I first read...how 
The stag at eve had drunk his fill 
Where danced the moon on Monan’s rill, 

* * * * 

Then opened the gates of Romance, and with Fitz James we drove the 
chase, till 

Few were the stragglers, following far, 

That reached the lake of Vennachar, 

* * * * 

From that time, for months, there was usually a little volume of Scott in 


7 


>dy of the lake— continued. j 821 S43L3 

one’s pocket, in company with the miscellaneous collection of a boy’s treasures 
...Scott peopled for us the rivers and burnsides with his reivers; the Fairy 
Queen came out to Eildon Hill, and haunted Carterhaugh; at Newark Tower 
we saw ‘the embattled portal arch’ 

Whose ponderous grate and massy bar 
Had oft rolled back the tide of war.” 

“Scribner’s magazine,” 1891. 

Quentin Durward, by Sir Walter Scott. j S431q 

“Next [after ‘Ivanhoe’] in order of delight, came ‘Quentin Durward,^ 
especially the hero of the scar... Quentin’s uncle.” “Scribner’s magazine, 
1891. 

Hiawatha, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. j 811 L82s 

“Next to Scott, with me, came Longfellow... I remember how ‘Hia¬ 
watha’ came out, when one was a boy, and how delightful was the free forest 
life, and Minnehaha and Paupukkeewis, and Nokomis.” “Scribner’s maga¬ 
zine,” 1891. 

Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte. j B771 j 

“Probably the first novel I ever read...The tale was a creepy one for 
a boy of nine, and Rochester was a mystery, St. John a bore. But the lonely 
little girl in her despair... and her days of starvation at school, and the 
terrible first Mrs. Rochester, were not to be forgotten.” “Scribner’s maga¬ 
zine,” 1891. 

j 398.25 M29a 

King Arthur and his knights, by Sir Thomas Malory. 

“For a boy to read Sir Thomas Malory is to ride at adventure in en¬ 
chanted forests, to enter haunted chapels where a light swims from the Graal, 
to find by lonely mountain meres the magic boat of Sir Galahad.” “Scrib¬ 
ner’s magazine,” 1891. 

Lays of ancient Rome, by Lord Macaulay. j 821 M11L2 

“In reading the ‘Lays of Ancient Rome,’ my sympathies were with the 
expelled kings, at least with him who fought so well at Lake Regillus: 

Titus, the youngest Tarquin, 

Too good for such a breed.” 

“Scribner’s magazine,” 1891. 

j T333r 

The rose and the ring, by William Makepeace Thackeray. 

“It was worth while to be twelve years old, when the Christmas books 
were written by Dickens and Thackeray. I got hold of ‘The Rose and the 
Ring’...and of the ‘Christmas Carol’ when they were damp from the press. 
King Valoroso, and Bulbo, and Angelica were even more delightful than 
Scrooge, and Tiny Tim, and Trotty Veck.” “Scribner’s magazine,” 1891. 

Poetic and dramatic works of Lord Tennyson. j 821 T29 

“From Lord Tennyson first one learned to appreciate the charm, the 
magic of poetry, as distinct from the joy of the narrative and the interest of 
the persons. This came to me. . .when reading the ‘Morte d’Arthur,’ as a 
boy.” “Forum,” 1887. 


8 


Lucy Larcom 

A New England factory girl who became a poet 

Scottish chiefs, by Jane Porter. j P836s3 

“My first novel... So absorbed was I in the sorrows of Lady Helen Mar 
and Sir W illiam Wallace, that I crept into a corner where nobody would 
notice me, and read on through sunset into moonlight, with eyes blurred 
with tears.” “New England girlhood 

Gulliver’s travels, by Dean Swift. j 827 S97g5 

In which Mr. Lemuel Gulliver tells of his shipwreck at sea, his strange 
adventures among the Lilliputians, and his perilous encounters with the 
giants of Brobdingnag. 

Paul and Virginia, by Saint Pierre. j S149p 

A romance, the scene of which is the tropical island of Mauritius. It is 
said that Lucy Larcom knew this book and “Gulliver’s travels” almost by 
heart. 

Old curiosity shop, by Charles Dickens. j D551oL2 

“I read [this] in an unfinished room given up to sea-chests and coffee- 
bags and spicy foreign odors... Little Nell and her grandfather became 
[very] real to me.” “New England girlhood 

Ask to see the edition illustrated in color by Frank Reynolds. 

j 808.8 B41 v.3 

Hymn before sun-rise, in the vale of Chamouni, by Samuel 
Taylor Coleridge. (In Bellamy & Goodwin. Open sesame, 
v.3, p. 119—122.) 

“With this ideal picture of mountain scenery there came to me a revela¬ 
tion of poetry as the one unattainable something which I must reach out 
after, because I could not live without it... It was as if Mont Blanc stood 
visibly before me, while I murmured to myself in lonely places— 

‘Motionless torrents! silent cataracts! 

Who made you glorious as the gates of heaven 
Beneath the keen full moon? Who bade the sun 
Clothe you with rainbows? Who with living flowers 
Of loveliest blue, spread garlands at your feet?’ 

I have never visited Switzerland,' but I surely saw the Alps, with Cole¬ 
ridge, in my childhood.” “New England girlhood.” 


Abraham Lincoln 

TEsop’s fables. j 398.91 A25fl 

A lady gave Lincoln when a boy a copy of iEsop’s “Fables” for a present 
“and Abe felt as happy and rich as a king. He read these fables until he 
could repeat them; and some persons have thought this book developed in him 
that remarkable love for stories for which he was so famous all his life.” 
Putnam’s “Children’s life of Abraham Eincoln. 


9 


Pilgrim’s progress, by John Bunyan. j B885p4 

Lincoln’s father, while visiting a friend, found an old, soiled copy of 
“Pilgrim’s progress,” which he borrowed for Abe. “When he got home and 
showed this treasure to his son, the boy’s eyes sparkled, and he was so de¬ 
lighted that he could neither eat nor sleep. He fairly devoured the book, 
and was by no means content with one reading.” Putnam’s “Children’s life 
of Abraham Lincoln.” 


Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 
Sketch-book, by Washington Irving. j 817 I28sk 

“Every reader has his first book...one book among all others which in 
early youth first fascinates his imagination, and at once excites and satisfies 
the desires of his mind. To me, this first book was the Sketch-Book of 
Washington Irving. I was a school-boy when it was published, and read 
each succeeding number with ever increasing wonder and delight.” Samuel 
Longfellow’s “Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.” 

Robert Collyer received a present of the “Sketch-book” and he afterward 
wrote, “No such delight had touched me since the old days of Crusoe. I 
saw the Hudson and the Catskills, took poor Rip at once into my heart, as 
everybody has, pitied Ichabod while I laughed at him, thought the old Dutch 
feast a most admirable thing.” Quoted in Baldwin’s “Book-lover.” 

The Library has a beautiful edition of “Rip Van Winkle” with fifty 
colored plates by Arthur Rackham. Another edition, illustrated by George 
Boughton, contains “Rip Van Winkle” and “The legend of Sleepy Hollow.” 


Brander Matthews 

Author of “Tom Paulding ” 

Tom Brown’s school days, by Thomas Hughes. j H898to 

“Perhaps the popularity of ‘Tom Brown’s school days’ was helped by 
that never-to-be-forgotten fight between Tom Brown and Slogger Williams 
...It is curious that three of the best and most boyish boys in fiction should 
be Toms—Tom Brown, Tom Bailey, and Tom Sawyer.” “Forum,” 1887. 

Ivanhoe, by Sir Walter Scott. j S431i2 

“Barely ten years old when ‘Ivanhoe’ was attempted, three times the 
seemingly interminable talk of the swineherd caused me to stick at the thresh¬ 
old, like the little pig under the gate. But when at last the portal was 
passed, and entrance was had into the enchanted palace of delight which the 
Wizard of the North has created by his Aladdin-lamp of midnight oil, who 
could resist the magic of the wonder-worker? No healthy boy ever lived who 
did not long to break lance in the tourney and to go forth as a knight with 
Desdichado on his shield.” “Forum,” 1887. 

Loved also by Andrew Lang, who says, “Perhaps ‘Ivanhoe’ was first 
favorite of yore; you cannot beat Front de Boeuf, the assault on his castle, 
the tournament.” “Scribner’s magazine,” 1891. 


10 


Hugh Miller 

Scottish geologist and author of “The old red sandstone” 

Iliad, by Homer. j 883 H75i 

Odyssey, by Homer. j 883 H75obu 

"The Odyssey... I found in the house of a neighbor. Next came the 
Iliad... I saw... that no other writer could cast a javelin with half the force 
of Homer. The missiles went whizzing athwart his pages; and I could see 
the momentary gleam of the steel, ere it buried itself deep in brass and bull- 
hide.” “My schools and schoolmasters.” 

Andrew Lang tells us that Hector and Ajax were as great favorites with 
him as Horatius on the bridge, or the younger Tarquin. "Here,” he says, 
“was life, .here were heroes and lance-thrusts and sword-strokes, for the love 
of Helen, the fairest of women. Can one ever forget...the first sight of 
Circe, weaving at her golden woof, and singing her magic song?” “Forum,” 

1887. 


Agnes Repplier 

American writer 

Last days of Pompeii, by Bulwer-Lytton. j L999L 

"The rescue of Glaucus from the arena was an epoch in my childhood, 
and the cry of joy that rings from Nydia’s lips rang in my heart for years. 
I have an inexpressible tenderness now for The Last Days of Pompeii, be¬ 
cause of the passionate suspense with which I read it when I was a little 
girl, and the supreme gasp of relief with which I hailed the arrival of Sallust 
and Calenus, while the lion crouches trembling in his cage.” “Essays in 
miniature.” 

Sintram & his companions, by La Motte-Fouque. j L194s 

"What was the pleasure of eating tarts to the glamour cast over us by 
our first romance, to -the enchanted hours we spent with Sintram by the 
sea-shore, or with Nydia in the darkened streets of Pompeii.” “Books and 
men.” 


Alice Hegan Rice 

Author of “Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch ” 

Castle Blair, by Flora Louisa Shaw. j S534c 

"The first book that I discovered for myself was ‘Castle Blair.’ I de¬ 
cided at once that it was the best book that was ever written.” “Outlook,” 
1904. 

This is the book which John Ruskin said "is good and lovely and true, 
having the best description of a noble child in it (Winnie) that I ever read: 
and nearly the best description of the next best thing—a noble dog.” 

Little women, by Louisa M. Alcott. j A355Li 

Story of the happy home life of four girls, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, 
drawn largely from the girlhood of Miss Alcott and her sisters. 

Little men, by Louisa M. Alcott. j A355L 

Sequel to “Little women.” 


11 


Old-fashioned girl, by Louisa M. Alcott. j A355o 

“Soon after [the discovery of Castle Blair] I fell in love with Miss 
Alcott, and was so ardent in my devotion that no other books existed for me 
until I had read and re-read every volume she had written.” “Outlook/’ 1904. 

The books whose titles are given are perhaps the best of Miss Alcott’s 
books, but there are also “Eight cousins,” “Jack and Jill,” “Jo’s boys,” and 
others. 

Donald and Dorothy, by Mrs. Mary Mapes Dodge. j D671d 
Hans Brinker, by Mrs. Mary Mapes Dodge. j D671h 

“When I did deflect, it was for a worthy object—Mrs. Dodge’s beautiful 
stories ‘Hans Brinker’ and ‘Donald and Dorothy.’ It was through the latter 
that I became acquainted with the enormity of the serial...The thought of 
having to wait a whole month to find out whether Dorothy was really 
Donald’s sister or not reduced me to tears!” “Outlook,” 1904. 

The prince and the pauper, by Mark Twain. j T897p 

“One of my prime favorites was ‘The Prince and the Pauper,’ that fas¬ 
cinating tale of confused identity which seems so real in the reading and so 
improbable in the remembering.” “Outlook,” 1904. 

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. j T897a 
Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain. j T897t 

“There was one period when I became deeply interested in my brother’s 
books, and shared his enthusiasm for...‘Tom Sawyer’ and ‘Huckleberry 
Finn’.” “Outlook,” 1904. 

Faith Gartney’s girlhood, by Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney, j W651f 
The other girls, by Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney. j W651ot 

These “were dearly beloved.” “Outlook,” 1904. 

Anne Thackeray Ritchie 

Daughter of Thackeray the novelist and herself a writer 

Parent’s assistant, by Maria Edgeworth. j E284pa 

“I seem to have lived in company with a delightful host of little play¬ 
mates, bright, busy children, whose cheerful presence remains more vividly 
in my mind than that of many of the real little boys and girls who used to 
appear and disappear disconnectedly... But day by day, constant and un¬ 
changing, ever to be relied upon, smiled our most lovable and friendly com¬ 
panions: Simple Susan...the dear little merchants, Jem, the widow’s son, 

with his arms around old Lightfoot’s neck, the generous Ben, with his whip¬ 
cord and his useful proverb of ‘Waste not, want not,’—all of these were 
there in the window corner waiting our pleasure.” Quoted in Repplier’s 
“Books and men.” 

Popular tales, by Maria Edgeworth. j E284po 

“After Parent’s Assistant... came Popular Tales in big brown volumes 
off a shelf in the lumber-room of an apartment in an old house in Paris; 
and as we opened the books, lo! creation widened to our view. England, Ire¬ 
land, America, Turkey, the mines of Golconda, the streets of Bagdad, thieves, 
travelers, governesses, natural philosophy, and fashionable life were all laid 
under contribution, and brought interest and adventure to our humdrum 
nursery corner.” Quoted in Repplier’s “Books and men.” 


12 


Theodore Roosevelt 

Cast away in the cold, by I. I. Hayes. j H372c 

Story of an old sailor who ran away to sea. He tells how he was ship¬ 
wrecked and of the adventures which befell him on a lonely island in the 
Arctic sea. 


William Henry letters, by Mrs. Abby Morton Diaz, j D539wi 

Letters exchanged by a small boy at boarding school and his friends at 
home. 

These “were first-class, good healthy stories, interesting in the first 
place, and in the next place teaching manliness, decency and good conduct.” 
“Outlook,” 1913. 


Leatherstocking tales, by James Fenimore Cooper. 

Deerslayer. 

Last of the Mohicans. 

Pathfinder. 

Pioneers. 

Prairie. 


.j C787d 
.j C787L 
j C787pa 
.j C787p 
j C787pr 


“There is nothing like them. I could pass examination in the whole of 
them to-day. Deerslayer with his long rifle, Jasper and Hurry Harry, Ish- 
mael Bush with his seven stalwart sons—do I not know them? I have 
bunked with them and eaten with them.” Riis’s “Theodore Roosevelt, the 
citizen” 


Popular natural history, by J. G. Wood. j 590 W85 

“My father... gave me a little book by J. G. Wood, the English writer 
of popular books on natural history, and then a larger one of his called 
‘Homes Without Hands.’ Both of these were cherished possessions. They 
were studied eagerly.” “Outlook,” 1913. 

Another good book on this subject is Hornaday’s “American natural 
history” (qj 591.97 H79). j 811 L82ta 

Saga of King Olaf, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. (In 
“Tales of a wayside inn,” p.54-116.) 


“At a pretty early age I began to read certain books of poetry, notably 
Longfellow’s poems, ‘The Saga of King Olaf,’ which absorbed me. This 
introduced me to Scandinavian literature; and I have never lost my interest 
in and affection for it.” “Outlook,” 1913. 


Sir Walter Scott 

The boy’s Percy. j 821.08 P42b 

Referring to Bishop Percy’s “Reliques of ancient English poetry,” Scott 
says, “I remember well the spot where I read these volumes for the first 
time...and henceforth I overwhelmed my school-fellows and all who would 
hearken to me, with tragical recitations from the ballads of Bishop Percy. 
The first time, too, J could scrape a few shillings together... I bought unto 
myself a copy of these beloved volumes; nor do I believe I ever read a book 
half so frequently, or with half the enthusiasm.” Lockhart’s “Life of Sir 
Walter Scott.” 

The stirring ballads of the old days of English border warfare and 
chivalry in “The boy’s Percy” are from these volumes of Bishop Percy and 
are edited for boys by Sidney Lanier. 


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Robert Louis Stevenson 

Author of “Treasure island,” and other stories 

Guy Mannering, by Sir Walter Scott. j S431g 

How the heir of Ellangowan, kidnapped by smugglers when a child, 
came again into his own. Meg Merrilies the gipsy, Dandie Dinmont the 
Scottish yeoman, Dominie Sampson, and Dirk Hatteraick the smuggler are 
some of the principal characters. 

Redgauntlet, by Sir Walter Scott. j S431r 

Tale of a Jacobite conspiracy. 

Rob Roy, by Sir Walter Scott. j S431ro3 

Rob Roy was a famous Highland outlaw and freebooter. The story tells 
of the active part he took in the Pretender’s rebellion of 1715. 

“How often I have read Guy Mannering, Rob Roy, or Redgauntlet, I 
have no means of guessing, having begun young.” “Memories and portraits.” 


Henry Van Dyke 

Author of “The first Christmas tree,” and other stories 

Don Quixote, by Cervantes. j C334i5 

Treats of the pleasant manner of the knighting of that famous gentle¬ 
man, Don Quixote, of the dreadful and never-to-be-imagined adventure of 
the windmills, of the extraordinary battle he waged with what he took to be 
a giant, and of divers other rare and notable adventures and strange en¬ 
chantments which befell this valorous and witty knight-errant. 

This edition is illustrated in color by Walter Crane. 

Plutarch’s lives. j 920 P72 

One of the most famous books ever written. It tells of the lives of fifty 
Greek and Roman heroes and leaders from mythical times to the beginning 
of the Christian era. It is realistic and picturesque in style, crowded with 
incident and full of interesting anecdotes. 

“In [these] two books I took a real and vivid interest. . .They seemed 
to open a new world to me, the world of the past, in which I could see men 
moving about and doing the most remarkable things.” “Outlook,” 1904. 

The pirate, by. Sir Walter Scott. j S431pi 

An account of certain remarkable incidents which took place in the wild 
islands of the Orkneys and Zetland. 

“ Tvanhoe’ and ‘The Pirate’ pleased me immensely.” “Outlook,” 1904. 

j 821 C68 

Rime of the ancient mariner, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. 

“It is an ancient Mariner, 

And he stoppeth one of three. 

‘By thy long grey beard and glittering eye, 

Now wherefore stopp’st thou me?’ 

* * * * 

He holds him with his glittering eye— 

The wedding guest stood still, 

And listens like a three years’ child: 

The Mariner hath his will.” 

Dr. Van Dyke says that he read this with sincere joy. 


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